On this occasion i will take a quick look on Tactical RPG with the title a kind of B-movie. I'm talking about Nippon Ichi Software's Soul Nomad & The World Eaters (2007).
That's some majestic insignia. As for the sword, you can guess that there's something malevolent about that dark sword. I heard that this game will get remastered in future and i'm quite agree with that. Because this is RPG, there's not much significant setting on option menu so i hit the "New Game" menu immediately.
I hope you like RPG with historical narration complete with fictional date because this game is the one. There's not much text on each period while we have to go through many year periods: 525 TA, 535 TA, 550 TA, and so on. The narration is followed by some scenery and that man who keep walking to the right. I don't know what's the deal with him. Maybe he's the one who's the voice actor of the narration. So far the story is: there's warring period like in Feudal Japan age then a victor comes out from that war and unites nations around. His name is Lord Median. But then there's time when he and his son decease. With no king to unite them, they go into warring state again. People are just stupid like that. Embrace war and learn no lesson in history.
At year 550 TA, Lord Median's daughter Layna become the great leader and makes them sign peace treaty. But 50 years after that a shadow and 3 Behemoths make destruction in this world. Layna manages to banish said shadow along with herself. With that the 3 Behemoths lie dormant and peace restored once again.
Finally at year 800 TA, in some hidden village. A lad listens to frustration of his childhood friend because she doesn't get to be town guardian and she begins to blame on him. Unfortunately, he's me the usual silent protagonist unless the game gives me dialogue option. You can choose the hero's gender and name. The default name is "Revya" which is quite appropriate name for both female and male protagonist. But i stick with "Izenger" because i'm weird like that.
My childhood friend named Danette, assumes that Lady Layna thinks that she's too weak to be town guardian thus she half-heartedly do the 2,327th sparring with me. It's obviously excuse to bring tutorial to the player. It's all simple. I move then end turn. Next, i move next to her, attack, then end turn.
I kind of disappointed that i become the usual swordsman protagonist. But every time i attack, i unleash 2 combo hits. Any RPG that allows me to get more than 1 hit from basic attack is very interesting to me.
Then Danette unleash a special move on me but most of her hit only inflict 0 amount of damage. Then i retaliate with basic attack but with critical chance kicks in which inflict significantly more damage than her flashy move. With that, her hitpoint drops to 0 and training is over.
Then Lady Layna summons us and finally decide to make us town guardian. Danette is happy about that. I'm also happy too because i'm free from her same ol' complaint. Lady Layna summons bunch of divine weapon for Danette to choose. If the weapon can be summoned like that instead of making it from scratch, i feel sorry for blacksmith in this world.
Once i get my turn, Lady Layna give this wretched sword even though there's more weapons on that previous bunch. I know that i'm supposed to be the chosen one. But i don't appreciate that you give me this sword that emits darkness and doesn't watch its vocabulary well.
Suddenly i have conversation with this shady guy, inside of me! You can already tell that this guy is rude and ruthless, that's because he's the one who make wanton destruction 200 years ago. Also that Lady Layna is that the one who seal this schmuck into the sword. You notice he cues a part of title "The World Eaters"? The mentioned 3 Behemoths are these World Eaters. For some reason they're awake now and the thing that baffles me the most is Lady Layna gives me task to hunt them down by using the power of their master! And somehow Gig is fine with killing their former minions. He's really heartless git. That's it! I would like to call you Git, instead.
Lady Layna announces to other villagers that i have the great (evil) power to take some serious business with The World Eaters and they should help with all their might. Later, she asks Danette to talk in private. Then i have these options. Waiting someone that talk in private usually takes very long time and waste my time inefficiently. Taking a bath after the training may be good idea. But since Git resides on my body, i will feel less relaxed to take a bath with him around me. Thus i visit graveyard.
Thanks for the pun, Mr. Obvious! The graveyard is filled with the dead not only from this village but also from other villages that get obliterated by the World Eaters. Later he gives me a lecture that these victim's souls are safe in afterlife and his excuse for that: because he's humanitarian or so he said.
Later at night...
I have a dream where Gig ruins the world 200 years ago. He tells one of the World Eaters to destroy a castle and it does what it told. It shoot laser at the castle and blinding explosion happens. Gig is very pleased and laugh maniacally.
Gig doesn't like me looking at his dream. Once i see a dream that contains your personal embarrassing moment, i will show you who's the boss. >:)
On next day...
You can talk to NPCs in this village but that's about it. The option with exclamation mark means it's the option that you need to choose to progress the plot. Thus i leave the village and later the Watchman tells me to pretend that this village never exist and don't come back here unless i defeat The World Eaters. What a supportive manner [Medium Sarcasm]
But wait! Danette wants to go with me and i can dominate her right away...that sounds revolting. Actually, it means she's on my recruit list besides neutral units that i can recruit but we will talk about it further later.
Once i leave the village, Gig gives me tutorial about forming a party. This party space is called "room" for some reason. The more unit within a room, the more leader number stats i get. As for what leader number stats does, i'm afraid i don't have clue about it. Maybe the more leader number stats in a room, the stronger the units within it. The leader unit is definitely me. If i'm defeated, my party will be defeated as well and also fail on mission. Putting me on back position is neat idea and Gig agrees with that. For starter, Gig recruits Pyremage, Cleric, and swordsman.
I can choose to do reckon to see the situation of upcoming battle. I kind of faltered because enemies has 3 squads while i only have 1 squad. I remind you that this is the first real battle. Can i win this?
Then Gig gives me words about [Skills] and [Combos]. I can only use them if my squad's STM is below 80%. One important question: What the heck is STM, Gig? What it does for me? Oh, he's gone. Very helpful [Large Sarcasm]
I thought that i have to move and/or take action for each unit that i control. Turns out, the battle involves entire squad and engage automatically. Cleric on rear position will heals all members before other take action. Me on middle position will shoot plasma bomb from my sword. I bet i can do more damage if i use it in melee manner if i position myself at the front row but i don't want to take a risk. Be mindful that your squad or enemy's will always retaliate after attack. Attacking first can give you advantage (such as have chance to eliminate enemy's unit or get healed earlier) but you still have to be aware of enemy's retaliation.
After more combat section, i have access to attack skill "Holy Justice" which requires me and Danette on same group. Not only it will allow you to unleash more powerful attack than regular one, but also it gives enemy's group extra beating as the skill executed after regular combat session! But do mind that you only limited by number when unleashing this special attack for the rest of the battle. For instance "Holy Justice" can only be performed once per battle.
Enemy's pyremage can conjure fire on us outside of battle. As i don't deploy any mage, i don't get to do that on enemy. But overall, the battle is pretty easy. Especially when one of the enemy's group consist of clerics on front line while the swordsman on middle line! Scout_domination05.wav
Back to squad arranging, i find out that Danette can be positioned everywhere even to rear position but i have to preserve myself. Sorry, dudette. I think all of melee units can be stationed in middle line but they will deal less damage Like Swordsman will throw stone instead of using his sword. I have no idea what "select" button does here which could be essential. All this time i only use "Cross" button to confirm and "Circle" button to cancel. Mostly. ;p
Initially, i want to go to Astec town for preparation but Danette want to go to the other way which lead to nearest World Eater! I can't leave her alone to fight the behemoth. So i'm forced to go along with her.
Besides the attack skill, i also have Tactic skill that can boost my stats temporarily. The problem is: what ACT stats does? I know CRT is the critical chance of my attack. But ACT? No idea at all.
Yeah. No kidding, dudette. And remember your thought to defeat that big thing by yourself! Don't chicken out now there!
Another thing that surprises Danette is now he can hear Gig's voice too. The reason why Gig call her "cow", that's because her race "Sepp" is practically anthropomorphism of cow. She has cow bell as her necklace and earrings, see? She is having trouble with remember Gig's name even though it's simple and that makes Gig boiling. I imagine she most likely doesn't remember my name and i'm fine by being called "you" everytime by her up to this point.
We also spot some seedy mysterious persons nearby. It goes without saying that they're more powerful than our rag-tag band. Could it be that man with bandage is that person walking on narration? Then they disappear without trace.
Now you telling me what STM is. Much appreciated, git. [Small Sarcasm]
STM stands for Stamina whenever my squad moves or attack. My squad can replenishes stamina by ending turn without making any action. Keeping STM high is important to keep your squad's stats high. But without dropping it to at least 80%, my squad can't unleashes special attack. So it's quite balance. By the way, we have to fight against soldiers that guard The World Eater because they don't want anyone (e.g. us) to agitate it and later becomes more active on destroying civilizations. Reasonable but coward, they are.
On top of that, they're quite pushover. Their leader who's the bloke with heavy armor is more challenging as he can deal and take damage more than those soldiers. His description says that he's weak to magic attack. But my formation of fighters + healer still work well against him.
Sometime when making plot progress, i'm rewarded with new room type. Also i get new unit type to recruit. By looking at his description, you know the characteristic of Soldier. He's weak and cheap. Probably not worth the money and i better stick to employ swordsman. By the way, the currency in this game is GP that stands for Gig points. It's not something more sensible like Gold points or whatnot. But it's kind of logical as i use his power to make squad up to this point. I can hire higher level units with more GP cost which is more practical than leveling them up from winning battles. Do note that their level can't be higher than the Hero's.
When i'm in the middle of the changing the rooms, Kotaro voluntarily fills a room. But once i change the rooms again, he's gone and never to be seen again. I'm not bright.
On next battle, i summon the new squad that i made before. Every battle always start with my one and only squad. I can summon up to 2 more with GP cost. Also i have to arrange where they spawn. The process is kind of like playing Tetris. Funny.
Creating new squad means someone else has to be its leader. As i mentioned before that, the squad will be wiped out if the leader is defeated. So the leader must be either durable or in rear position. Choosing leader also determines what Tactic they can use. For example, Pyremage leader can cast Terror Blaze outside of battle. As for special attack, it's determined by squad's composition. The hero and Danette can do the aforementioned Holy Justice when they're on same group. Sometime you earn other special attack if you put 2 same units of certain type on same group.
The mysterious person appear once more. The world eater unleash giant laser at them but the bandaged guy manage to block it like it was nothing. But once my squad approach the behemoth, we get annihilated instantly. Medic_sf13_magic_reac02.wav
I lost conscious again and Gig offers me greater power at the cost of my whole body. We all know that skull symbol means bad so i decline his offer. Naturally, he doesn't like my choice but he has to oblige and we retreat instead.
We successfully retreat but we are about to get mugged by this wizard that claim to be famous. Of course we don't take this kindly.
Dio, the rogue wizard claims that he has reliable subordinates: 2 beasts and a warrior. One wolf arrives just in time, followed by another one that comes bit late. Lastly a farmer who's told to be the powerful warrior, arrives at the scene and he complaints about how long he has to run to get here and he has to take care his crops. What a hilarious idiot.
This time Gig introduce me with [Gig Edict] which is basically usable item such as for healing and decreasing enemy's stats. This is kind of unusual because before access to this [Gig Edict], i can only heal by using healing magic which is the opposite of most JRPG where i can only heal by using item.
They consist of 1 unit for each squad. The farmer is pushover but the wolves are serious threat because they can take and deal big damage. As for the wizard, he can unleash magic outside of battle that inflict heavy damage. When he said he wants to kill us, he very means it. Maybe the idea is: i have to distract him by summoning another group but i forgot to do that. Summoning need the currency. If we take too many casualty (including from secondary team), i receive less GP. But it's better than losing the battle by letting me defeated.
Eventually, we manage to approach him. Then i unleash "Demon Blast" move where i slash my target repeatedly then my hair turns white as if i become Gig himself while the sword turns into wicked scythe. Here he looks like slices in halved but he's fine on next scene and he will be back to make my day with hilarity. By winning this battle, i unlock new unit type: Bareknuckle the bare-handed fighter (which is the farmer's class) and Wolf. Obviously the latter is great because they are "tank" with ability to deal big damage as well.
Gig grows tired of Danette so he wants to get rid of her. How he does that? He tricks her in style akin of classic cartoon. He said that she needs Crimson Tear to get into Astec Town nearby which is obviously lie. Then he told her that there's one buried near that tree and she proceed to dig for it. For ruthless person, his idea of getting rid of someone here is straight hilarious. By the way, i already got Crimson Tear from Lady Layna and i emerged with Gig in process.
I have unlock some room type. The initial type room: Open Area, doesn't have any decoration. Decoration is passive effect that set within a room. Some come within a room which usually last permanently. While other can be set whatever you desire but the effect only last for one battle. The red room "Gladiatorium" has permanent decoration: Death Charge which increase the squad's attack by 5% for every block they move. While the green room "Security room" has permanent decoration "Steel Form" that increase the squad's defense power drastically when they take defense state. As for the temporary decorations, they're rather interesting such as boost stats of certain unit or increase entire squad's unit when in certain terrain. You change all of the room at once by pressing "cross" button. You can choose to lock up to 2 rooms that you like in design menu. The thing is: the room change is entirely random. Each room change in type and slot configuration. I'm baffled that i can't seem to get the first room with 2 front slots, 1 middle slot, and 1 rear slot because it's the best setup in my opinion. It's natural that enemies inflict damage in more even distributed if they attack 2 front liners than only 1 front liner.
I can get more GP and Experience point by going through non-plot mission called "Inspection". But it's not as easy as it sounds. As you can see i'm heavily outnumbered here and i have to fight against unit type that new to me. Because there's no GP cost upon summoning, i should be more active on summoning backup. But i'm stupid and coward, i choose to defend all the time and let the mission turn runs out. I won that way but with least reward. Winning Inspection mission rewards me with Room Points that i can use to upgrade unit in the room that takes the Inspection mission. There's mission's boss that you can take on for extra reward if you're able to, that is. Do note that if you're defeated here, it's game over.
Meanwhile Danette still digging for the precious gem. Even though she's still there digging a big hole, i can still use her in my squad. Maybe that's the reason why the unit in my squad called manikin. It's like imitation doll that you can bring anywhere to battle regardless the origin whereabouts. Anyway, i'm done for now.
Nippon Ichi Software's Soul Nomad & The World Eaters (2007) is pretty interesting Tactical RPG. But like Disgaea or Tactic Ogre - Let's Cling Together, i feel thrown out/overwhelmed by some gameplay mechanism. In SN&TWE's case, it's the way to upgrading my squad. The "Inspection" mission feels very rude and very punishing if you fail on it. Yes, it's optional mission but there's big priority to take it because i want to upgrade my squad. On the bright side, the battle system is refreshing take on Tactical RPG. I control one squad instead of each and every unit. Thus the battle's pace is pretty brisk. Then there's the skill or tactic you can cast outside of battle that can help you to win the battle. I can't see the balance of unit variety. I have simple mind. I certainly recruit those wolves and ignore frail cheaper unit like soldier, bandit, or bareknuckle. Sure, the wolves are the most expensive unit so far and contribute leader number stats the least but i still think they're the most useful ones. Maybe the idea is you create a sacrificial squad that consists of cheap units. Have them fight, not to defeat the enemies but only to weaken them (reducing their STM). But do mind that big casualty penalizes you with lesser GP reward. Speaking of GP, i continue the game off-the-record and i end up with tons of GP. I can use it to buy decorations or Gig Edicts (that come within limited stock) but they're pretty cheap. So i don't know what to do with it except summoning more squad in next battle. I wish i can upgrade my unit with said currency but apparently i can't. I need the Room Points instead. I also wish that there's more convenience on changing the rooms. The randomness against my liking most of the time. There's also the usual damage modification based on terrain like in War 2410. The graphic of the 2D and 3D art is quite great. The voice acting is pretty entertaining. I can't remember the music. Usually i can remember the battle theme but not this time. Sorry. But i believe it's quite good.
I don't know why they make Soul Nomad & The World Eaters (2007) with such complexity that doesn't match to my liking and mind. I like the simplicity of Battle Moon Wars the most. Even so, i like the battle system and probably continue the game once in a while. The story also interesting. And Gig, well. He's fairly interesting git. That's all i can say.
